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from the stop-treating-medical-issues-as-legal-problems dept.
The old rat-with-drug-laced-water "experiment" is a sham. The only choice the rat in the empty cage has is drinking plain water or drinking drugged water. They never show you a CONTROL where there is a rat with a cage full of cool rat toys and rat friends.
Johann Hari reports via Alternet:
The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection. [...] just 17.7 percent of cigarette smokers are able to stop [smoking by] using nicotine patches.
[...]Nearly 15 years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe [...] They decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs and transfer all the money they used to spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts and spend it instead on reconnecting them--to their own feelings and to the wider society.
[...]The [sic] most crucial step is to get [addicts] secure housing [as well as] subsidized jobs so they have a purpose in life and something to get out of bed for. I watched as they are helped, in warm and welcoming clinics, to learn how to reconnect with their feelings after years of trauma and stunning them into silence with drugs.
[...]An independent study by the British Journal of Criminology found that, since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.
[...]The main campaigner against the decriminalization back in 2000 was Joao Figueira, the country's top drug cop. He offered all the dire warnings that we would expect: more crime, more addicts; but when we sat together in Lisbon, he told me that everything he predicted had not come to pass--and he now hopes the whole world will follow Portugal's example.
(Score: 5, Informative) by aiwarrior on Friday February 13 2015, @05:29PM
I am Portuguese and I do think your are severely biased in your statements. Plus lots of things are omitted in this article.
First, refuting your argument: As you state correctly Paulo Portas is currently the vice prime minister and I have never heard of any kind of talk regarding the inversion of the current drug policies on this legislature. The shooting booths didn't go ahead because the Portuguese society was not ready for the idea of the state sponsoring facilities and actual drugs to drug addicts.
You certainly do not represent the majority of Portuguese opinion, as after that policy failed to be enacted other governments from the original party have not revived the policy. It was very controversial at the time and you dismissed it in a biased way as simple right leaning propaganda. You are likely an urbanite and I would invite you to go to the more left leaning but rural parts of the country(south of Tejo) and ask around the opinion of those people on having a drug consumption facility in their village. Plus, as the country is politically fairly polarized in north and south, with the north being more right and south generally more left leaning, I also would doubt there would be much support for drug use facilities of the type that were discussed at the time.
Actually the current justice minister, said that she thinks complete depenalization http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/justice-minister-calls-for-light-drug-legalisation-pm-pulls-rug/33951/ [theportugalnews.com] is the way to go. This, further debunks your right wing propaganda statements because the current government is right wing. Plus, you seem to apply the anglo saxonic right wing concept to Portugal and I dare-say southern Europe countries, which is very uninformative for this anglo-saxonic site.
Related to the article, there is slight omission. Drugs in Portugal are NOT legal. Selling drugs is a crime. What is not penalized is the consumption, thus tackling the problem of marginalization of drug addicts. So what is the line, one might ask. The line is, there is a very clearly defined maximum amount you can have on your person for consumption. If you exceed that amount it is considered drug trafficking and you are committing a crime that lands you in jail. This also extends to planting or producing.
One may think it "funny" that you can buy but you can't sell but is a very pragmatic both in terms of health concerns and political stance against drugs.
My personal opinion is that of the justice minister, it should be completely legalized although there is the strong possibility of drug tourism in Portugal. If the Netherlands became a drug tourism destination, a touristic country like Portugal would have probably the same outcome. In my perspective the drug tourism aspect of legalization was negative for Netherlands, so much so, that foreigner/s cannot buy drugs in some cities as the local people can. Maastricht is such a city (I have been there).
(Score: 5, Interesting) by hoochiecoochieman on Friday February 13 2015, @06:14PM
You are right, I'm severely biased. This is a free forum. I don't have to be neutral, or even reasonable. Paulo Portas, the current Portuguese government and the right-wing in general make want to puke my guts out. So every chance I have to stick it to them, I do.
Isn't that pretty obvious in my comment? If I did, we wouldn't have a right-wing government, would we?
Yes, I'm an urbanite. Is that a sin? Anyway, the vast majority of the Portuguese population is highly concentrated in coastal cities. I bet most of the Communist old men in rural Alentejo disapprove of gay marriage (but not their grandchildren, though). However, it was approved in the Parliament with the votes of the whole Left, including the Communist Party.
I approve what the Justice Minister said. May I remind you it was a personal opinion, and she was severely diced for saying it? It's funny that the Prime Minister had to come and publicly contradict her, but he has always kept quiet about the numerous fuck-ups that have been happening on her watch. Anyway, most right-wing people I know, even those who smoke hash, strongly oppose to drug legalisation.
To me, it's absurd. What it does is feeding criminal organisations with shitloads of money. Marijuana should be legalised and its production and distribution heavily regulated, like the other legal drugs, tobacco and alcohol (which, by the way, cause a lot more damage than cannabis ever did).
Yes, that risk exists. However, if many countries do the same move, there will be no incentive for anyone to travel anywhere to smoke a joint.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Silentknyght on Friday February 13 2015, @08:52PM
I appreciate the back-and-forth from people who actually have informed opinions. Yay soylentnews. :)
(Score: 1) by mmarujo on Friday February 20 2015, @12:52PM
My personal opinion is that of the justice minister, it should be completely legalized although there is the strong possibility of drug tourism in Portugal. If the Netherlands became a drug tourism destination, a touristic country like Portugal would have probably the same outcome.
Yes, that risk exists. However, if many countries do the same move, there will be no incentive for anyone to travel anywhere to smoke a joint.
I never understood the "drug tourism" point of view as opposed as the Wine Tourism, TV keeps telling us is really good, and should be encouraged!